"Girl Like Me"

Mexican Summer / Software

Artists:

It’s rare that a music video alters the perception of a song, but most people viewing the Eugene Kotlyarenko-helmed clip for Slava’s “Girl Like Me” will find it hard to dislodge the imagery from their minds. The standout cut from Raw Solutions, the full-length debut from Brooklyn-based producer and Moscow transplant Slava Balasanov, has plenty of dark shades-- a tinge of desperation to the pitch-shifted vocal, hints of sadness from the two-note grind looping through its center, and an accumulated sense of tension as each element is expertly tacked on.

Those parts are masterfully strung together, but the overall feel becomes sufficiently heightened by that payoff from Kotlyarenko’s video. What’s impressive is how well the track and the visuals complement one another in such a distressing manner. It’s like watching two opposing forces gradually dragging each other further down into the darkness, forming an inextricable link without a trace of redemption at its close.